Paying with a card is increasingly popular, along with other methods such as smartphone or apps like Venmo and Swish, even for small amounts. Growing numbers of us don’t bother changing money into local currency when we travel abroad. There is no doubt we are moving quickly toward a cashless society: it is convenient for customers and safer and cheaper for businesses, as well as more easily traceable, thus reducing the impact of the informal economy.

Against a backdrop of fast-moving technological change and adoption of new habits, growing numbers of businesses are simply standing by until the point when so few purchases are made in cash that they can legitimately tell customers they must pay with cards.

What are the authorities supposed to do in the face of this changing reality? Legislate to protect people on the margins of society, who do not have bank accounts or who are uncomfortable with new technology? Should they force businesses to maintain expensive and potential insecure structures? Should we as consumers fight for our right to pay in cash, or simply accept its demise as a sign of the times we live in?